December 02, 2008

Last Friday, I read that there was to be some sort of planetary boogie woogie on Monday evening involving Jupiter, Venus, and the Moon. I've been trying to keep up with what planets can be seen in the sky in case there are clear skies in the evening, which isn't very often. Yesterday was a gorgeous day, however.

I left the junior high school headed for a class at a bike factory up the road at about 5:15 yesterday and looked up to see the planets lined up about two-o'clock-high in the sky to the West. I nearly broke my neck, so I pulled over to have a gawk or two, then figured I ought to get on to class.

At the next red light, I reached out to the person next to me and tapped her on the throttle hand. I smiled and pointed to the sky. She couldn't see me smile, of course, because of my helmet, and she looked at everything below tree level to figure out what the hell the weird foreigner was gesturing at.

I could see horror in her eyes; will this ape try to speak English to me? What horrible thing is he going to do to me? Her daughter on the back was, thankfully, more level headed, and saw what I was pointing at. She smiled and gave me a thumbs up.

After class, I got out and saw that the group were still together and above the horizon, so I sped home and ran up to the roof to see if I could get anything halfway decent, and here's what it was. Close enough for jazz, I say. The crane in the foreground is atop a new high rise apartment building across Wenshin Rd from our place.

From what I've read, the position of the planets and moon switched by the time this was visible in the States, so it looked more like a :-( Most likely because of the recession.

***********30 MINUTES OF FAMOUS UPDATE********************

The above picture was picked up by the Wonkette last week. Thanks to Mr Turton for the heads up.